Wonders of Creation

Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,
that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
(Job 38:12-13)

In chapters 38 and 39 of Job, the Lord describes the wonders of his creation. By one rhetorical question after another he reminds Job that it was he, and not Job, who created it in all its splendor. Creation is vast beyond measure, intricate beyond our understanding, and powerful beyond our control. I think chapters 38 and 39 are some of the most beautiful poetry in the Bible. And I stand in awe of creation not just because of its vastness, intricacy and power, but also because of its beauty, which is so richly conveyed here.

It is interesting as well to read this passage 3000 years after it was written. Our modern knowledge of nature is many times greater than the ancients – when God asks Job his rhetorical questions, some of them we can now say yes to:

Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn? 
(Job 39:1)

To which anyone who watches National Geographic TV specials could probably say yes. But the larger point is still intact and powerful. God knows when every mountain goat gives birth, and watches every fawn being born. In fact, as we learn more about creation we appreciate even better than the author of Job how vast, intricate, powerful and beautiful the universe is. But modern man no longer looks beyond creation to see the power and majesty of the Creator. They call it Nature now, with a capital N, and worship it instead of God. They have mastered the trick of looking at the most beautiful and well designed system imaginable and ascribing its origin to pure chance. Lord, open the eyes of the blind. Let them see you in your creation. Let science once again be practiced for your glory. Praise you, for you are the Creator and Lord of All! Amen.

Limited Beings

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. (Eccl 11:5)

This was a metaphor that worked for thousands of years, and yet today we actually do know much about the “path of the wind” and “how the body is formed in a mother’s womb.” And so we are tempted to think that man has no inherent limits to his knowledge or his power, but this is not so. Every explanation we uncover with science has within it new mysteries, and ever discovery of science shows how much larger and more intricate the universe is. But we are so captivated by the success of science we sometimes forget there are whole classes of questions to which science can never yield any answers. There are spiritual, theological, philosophical, social and moral issues totally outside the realm of science. We must recover our humility and recognize that God’s ways and his knowledge and power are still far, far beyond us. We are inherently limited beings, dependent on him for life and truth and love.